The King and the Lionheart
by she.a.punk
Summary: John just needs to say something. He is protective of his best friend, even if he is the strongest of all of them. John has seen him broken before, he just needs to know Jennifer understands whats at stake. Est Ronon/Keller. Oneshot. COMPLETE


**A/N: I haven't written a fic in almost 7 years. I know this fandom isn't as active as it used to be, but the writing is a reward in itself, isn't it? I thought someone should be looking out for Ronon, even if he doesn't think he needs it. And that someone would be John. **

**Dedicated: **to _Nika Dixon_, an amazing author (look her up if R/K gives you life) who got me back into the game with the pure talent and joy I get from reading her fics.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Stargate Atlantis or Of Monsters and Men

SGASGASGA

_Taking over this town, they should worry,_

_But these problems aside I think I taught you well._

_That we won't run, and we won't run, and we won't run_.

"Hey Doc," John Shepherd waltzed into the Infirmary on an uneventful Tuesday afternoon.

Jennifer glanced up from where she was loading an organic sample onto a slide and gave him a quick smile.

"Hi John," she placed the slide under her microscope with a satisfied sigh and turned toward him, "everything okay?"

John looked quickly around the infirmary. Most of the beds were empty, which seemed to be the anti-norm nowadays but he let a small satisfied smile slide across his lips. It was nice to see the infirmary boring for once. More often than not anymore it seemed like they were dealing with one potentially universe ending catastrophe after another. It was a nice reminder that sometimes things did actually go right in Atlantis.

Still, there was one person he had been expecting to see hanging around.

Jennifer followed his gaze, giving the sleepy infirmary a once over, "weird to see it so empty isn't it?" She said, echoing his thoughts.

John nodded, "yeah," his hand darted out to the wood desk and rapped on it quickly.

"No need to go jinxing ourselves" he said in response to Jennifer's raised eyebrow.

She angled her head. She couldn't argue with that could she?

"If you're looking for Ronon I think he'll be by in a minute to take me to lunch. You're welcome to join us." She leaned into her microscope, fiddling with the knobs on the side and then pulled back to look at the open laptop beside her, punching a few keys and narrowing her eyes in concentration.

John hmmed, shifting slightly on his feet. Ronon was why he'd come, but not for the reason she thought.

"No, actually I, uh," he trailed off when a large, dark, creepily silent presence appeared beside him.

"Hey," Ronon rumbled. As soon as Jennifer turned around a small grin piqued the corners of his mouth. The expression was less and less strange on him everyday. She seemed to draw it out of him.

"Hey yourself," Jennifer pulled off her gloves and leaned up on her tiptoes, capturing the Satedan's lips against her own and threading her arms behind his neck.

John looked away and shifted uncomfortably. He didn't fault them for their happiness. He'd just never been much of a PDA guy. Didn't seem to bother the two of them in the slightest. Ronon never took much time to worry about what other people thought, and Jennifer had grown up in a home where her parents were openly affectionate, so it never struck her as odd.

That wasn't the kind of home John had grown up in.

After a few seconds he cleared his throat and the two broke apart slightly.

"Sorry colonel." She smirked at Ronon and stepped out of his arms when he made a sound of annoyance, indicating he did not agree with her apology.

"You ready?" He asked her, but his eyes were subtly watching Shepherd beside them. The man's eyes had shifted back to the floor and he kept moving his hand to his side arm and then off it again, his fingers fidgeting ever so slightly. He wondered if it was just because the colonel was as restless as he when Atlantis was quiet and uneventful for this long. Of if there was something else bothering the man.

Jen turned around to lock her computer and place the sample under the microscope back in the refrigerator behind her.

"Yeah, I'm starving."

Ronon nodded and reached for her hand when his twitchy CO spoke up.

"Actually, Doc, could I talk to you real quick? I promise it will only take a second."

Jen glanced at Ronon who was watching John closely, but the pilot was steadfastly avoiding his gaze and keeping it locked on her.

"Of course colonel." She looked at Ronon, "would you just grab me a tray? I'll be right behind you."

After another long look at Shepherd, Ronon nodded again before turning and striding out of the room as silently as he'd entered.

"So, what's up?" Jen leaned her hip against the side of the worktop she'd stationed herself at and watched the other man closely. John wasn't one she would normally describe as tentative, and definitly not nervous. But those were both words that popped into mind when she observed the way he was bouncing slightly on his toes and his eyes moving back and forth as he tried to decide on how he was going to begin.

"It's nothing serious," he said finally, "just gotta...you know. I need to tell you something." He winced slightly and shook his head. He'd known this wouldn't be easy, but he wasn't expecting it to be this hard.

"Tell me what?"

"Maybe 'ask' is a better word."

"Ask me something?" She wrinkled her brow, "about...my research?"

He angled his head, "No. Not about that...its more...personal," he managed.

This time her eyebrows raised and her eyes slid toward the door, starting to put two and two together. "About Ronon?"

He pursed his lips, "Yeah. I just...I need to know..."

She gasped suddenly and his eyes shot up to hers. His stomach dropped at the look of alarm on her face.

"Does the IOA want us to stop seeing each other? Do you?" She guessed, eyes wide and her hand automatically going to her neck.

_Nice one, John!_ He scolded himself for scaring her.

"No!" He raised his hands in calm, "nothing like that." She seemed to relax and he forced himself to continue before she got the wrong idea again.

"I need to know that...that you aren't going to...you know...hurt him."

She frowned again. "Hurt him? What are you talking about? I would never hurt Ronon. I mean, I give him stitches sometimes without a local but that's his own idea."

John sighed in frustration at himself and his constant inability to put these things into the right words, "I know, l know you wouldn't I just," he hesitated and then plowed forward, trying not to think too much. "Everyone always thinks he's the strongest of all of us…and he is." He nodded, raising his eyebrows, willing her to understand.

Jennifer's raised in response she oculdn't remember a time when the Colonel had been so uncertain. So earnest.

"It's just that…he was young when the wraith took him, you know? And he…he lost everything."

She nodded, her eyebrows drawing together in understanding over her soft blue eyes.

John nodded again. She thought she understood, but how could she? She hadn't been there.

She hadn't been there the day they had sent the MALP to Sateda and shown Ronon the utter destruction of his home world for the first time.

She hadn't been there when he was kidnapped and thrust back into the nightmare of being a runner again and dumped on that same desolate planet, surrounded by memories and death. She had been spared the anguish that he and Rodney and Teyla had had to endure after they rescued him when the infection he'd contracted from his various injuries had ravaged his body and he'd raged, tormented in the delirium of a high fever for days, revealing more than he ever intended about his past, his fear, his anger, his guilt.

She couldn't understand.

"He's more fragile than he would have you think." He said finally, quietly. Knowing if the man himself were there he would grunt and roll his eyes, or maybe just stare blankly, wondering what Shepperd was on about.

John had been there. John understood what was at stake.

Jennifer smiled. "John, are you trying to tell me you'll break my legs if I break his heart?" She laughed. She'd heard her father make a similar threat to the one boy who ever showed her interest when she was a teenager. And she was pretty sure she'd heard Lorne having a similar conversation with Ronon one day when she arrived to the gym early for her sparring lesson.

Slowly her smile faded when she realized John wasn't laughing. Instead his eyes remained locked on hers with an unblinking resolve that left no room for teasing, his lips pressed into a thin, serious line.

She swallowed, sobering. "Yeah John. I understand. I…I won't hurt him."

A beat later John nodded and he relaxed. "Good. He likes you Doc. A lot." He shrugged, "I just had to say it."

She smiled again, this time more somberly. "I'm glad. You're his best friend. I'd be worried if you weren't protective of him."

He shrugged again, backing out of the room quickly, "well, don't want you go be late for your lunch date." He disappeared around the corner and then, a moment later, his head appeared back in the doorway.

"And Doc?"

Jennifer mimed sliding a zipper across her lips, locking it, and then eating the key.

It was then that he bestowed her with one of his trademark grins.

"You're the best, Doc." And then he was gone.

In the mess hall Jennifer dropped into the chair beside Ronon and the tray of food he'd already gotten for her.

Instead of reaching for the food, however, she put out her hands and gently grasped both sides of his face and turned him toward her so she could place a slow, soft kiss on his lips.

Ronon raised an eyebrow at her, "what was that for?"

Jennifer smiled, "for being the kind of man who inspires so much loyalty from his friends."

"O-kay," He narrowed his eyes in suspcioun. "what did Shepherd say to you?"

"Sorry Ronon," she began digging into her meatloaf and mashed potatoes, "Doctor-patient confidentiality."

Ronon grunted, giving her a sidelong glance before returning to his own plate, considering the matter closed, or at least not as pressing as finishing his meal. They didn't get meatloaf made from real meat everyday. Across the room John entered the Mess and, as he was making his way to the lunch line, his eyes locked momentarily with the CMO's he nodded imperceptibly. She returned the gesture with a small smile.

She wouldnt break her promise to him. It would never occur to her to do such a thing. But the fact that he'd felt the need to ask, felt the need to make her understand. The fact that he saw there was more to Ronon than the braun and fight, just like she did, that meant more than any promise he'd ask of her. It made her proud to know he trusted her with his best friend.

She would go to her grave making sure she kept the promise she'd made him.

_END - please review if you read and feel so inclined._


End file.
